{"id":147,"date":"2018-08-28T15:15:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T12:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/?p=147"},"modified":"2019-01-01T15:48:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T13:48:51","slug":"cia_linkas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/cia_linkas\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors&#8217; Valanciunas opens at-risk youth centre in Lithuania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By\u00a0Ian Hunter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Hive Toronto<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the last six seasons, Jonas Valanciunas has been a towering presence on the court for the Toronto Raptors. On the hardwood, his seven-foot-tall stature is imposing to\u00a0his opponents, but away from the court, the man has a heart of gold.<\/p>\n<p>News of this somehow slipped under the radar, but last month, the Raptors\u2019 centre travelled back to his homeland to help open a day centre for at-risk youth. It\u2019s called \u201cI\u0161vien\u201d, which translates to \u201ctogether,\u201d the first of its kind for teens in Lithuania.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.delfi.lt\/lithuania\/society\/lithuanian-president-valanciunas-open-adolescent-day-center.d?id=78921021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delfi: The Lithuanian Tribune<\/a><\/em>, the centre will assist up to 12 youth at a time. Inside the centre, they\u2019ll receive meals and counselling, all funded by Valanciunas. Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskait\u0117 was on-hand for the opening ceremonies back on August 28th.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough sports, discipline, and hard work that sports needs, [Valanciunas] will help children to feel needed and find a second home,\u201d Grybauskait\u0117 told Delfi during the centre\u2019s official ribbon-cutting.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9z_wQvcE6gc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Off the court, Valanciunas is an official \u201cFor a Safe Luthiania\u201d campaign ambassador. By opening this youth centre, he\u2019s making a big difference back in his home country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry, this entry is only available in Lithuanian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jvfondas.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}